Lest we forget

It was only sixteen years ago:

At 0845 on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with twenty thousand gallons of jet fuel crashed (photo) into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the eightieth floor of the hundred-and-ten-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, eighteen minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767, United Airlines Flight 175, appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the sixtieth floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.
The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America’s support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the US in the months before 11 September and acted as the “muscle” in the operation. The nineteen terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.
As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York City, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon at 0945. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, over a hundred military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.
Less than fifteen minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the military, the horror in New York City took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of two hundred mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 1030, the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to three thousand people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, two dozen New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost ten thousand other people were treated for injuries, many severe.
Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane, United Flight 93, was hijacked about forty minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.” Another passenger, Todd Beamer, was heard saying “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll” over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were “everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”
The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of five hundred miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 1010. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.
At 1900, President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 2100, he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring that “terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” In a reference to the eventual military response he declared: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”
Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network based there, began on 7 October 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by American forces on 2 May 2011.

Rico says they're still at it...